


Definition of a Partnership

by pipisafoat



Category: In Plain Sight
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-28
Updated: 2011-05-28
Packaged: 2017-10-19 21:05:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/205200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pipisafoat/pseuds/pipisafoat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were like acids and bases. Mary was obviously the acid - burning everyone in her path, harsh and corrosive, and sometimes a bit sour.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Definition of a Partnership

They were like acids and bases. Mary was obviously the acid - burning everyone in her path, harsh and corrosive, and sometimes a bit sour. Marshall would be the base, then, because when they worked together... Well, no. They didn't cancel each other out, but they did smooth the rough edges.

Marshall sighed and slid another clip into his gun. Most of the time, they smoothed each other's rough edges and ruffled feathers. Other times, no matter how hard he tried, she was the acid and he was the litmus paper, there just as a judge for how deeply she would scar you on a given day.

There had to be a different analogy, one that didn't involve test tubes, because he knew Mary would never sit through anything even remotely science-y. She did food, though, so maybe he could find something there, he thought, wondering vaguely if he could shoot his initials in the target. _Not big enough_ , so he settled for one precise M, covering the whole paper, bottom of the middle point exactly in the center.

Oil and vinegar didn't quite cut it, because nobody had to shake them to make them mix, most of the time. They were the ones usually doing the shaking, and she wasn't in much of a salad mood now, anyway. _I could say we're Ben and Jerry_ , he thought. That's the only food comparison Mary would want to accept - unless he was the mug to her beer, demonstrated by buying said beer.

 _So she's definitely not a Trekkie_ , he mused, _but there are other good partners to be found in the scifi world._ Marshall as Mulder, the nutjob who still managed to have one of the best solve rates in the Bureau, which would make Mary Scully, the spitfire doubter. Never mind that Marshall was the sciencey one and that neither of them had plans to be abducted by aliens any time soon. The only real problem with that particular comparison was that Scully was always the one being pushed too far. You never saw Mulder on the range, drawing flowers and Kokopellis and dead bodies on targets because there was just a bit too much of Mary being Mary that day.

They were glucose and fructose, acting just differently enough to really screw some things up, but that was too scientific again. The bottle of vodka when you're actually looking for paint thinner, for once. The computer you have to kick before it'll start in the morning, but it's the most reliable piece of equipment you own once you get it going.

He sighed and slid the warm gun back into its holster, collecting his targets to show Mary, because she always wanted to see his artwork the day after his stress relief. The day after, when everything was back to normal, when they were back to living in each other's pockets and eating each other's food and, on a couple memorable occasions, wearing each other's clothing. All definitions had failed him, just like they always did, but he was okay with just saying "Mary and Marshall." _As impossible to explain as string theory, as unlikely as virgin birth, but we are who we are._


End file.
